


Too Good to Be So and Too Bad to Live (What Lies Beneath Missing Scene)

by JDSampson



Category: Project Blue Book (TV)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Heartbreak, Mental Anguish, Soul-Searching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:34:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23148577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JDSampson/pseuds/JDSampson
Summary: I was unhappy with the ending of What Lies Beneath so I decided to write my own version of what happened after the whole Susie incident. Spoilers for the episode obviously.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Too Good to Be So and Too Bad to Live (What Lies Beneath Missing Scene)

PBB: Too Good to Be So and Too Bad to Live

Quinn took a swig of Bourbon every time the phone rang. It was like his own little drinking game and it worked out just fine at first. Three calls, each lasting only 3 rings. Easy.

But now, like the manic game of twenty questions he’d played with Rizzuto, the game was getting a little harder. Harder because the phone wouldn’t stop. Five rings. Seven rings. Nine. He was a good drinker but even he couldn’t pour down that many that fast.

He slammed the thick glass down on his desk and the Bourbon splashed over his shaking hand and threatened to extinguish the nearly finished cigarette he had secured between his fingers.

“God damn it.” Quinn swallowed hard then scooped up the receiver on the tenth ring. “Blue Book!” he snapped, knowing full well that he didn’t need to announce. Only one person could be on the other end of the line.

“Captain.” Hynek. “I’ve been trying to reach you for hours. I even tried your home. Where have you been? Did the Generals keep you? I should have been there. I shouldn’t have let you go to them alone but Mimi. . . .”

“Relax, Doc. They questioned me for a couple of hours, but I think they believed that I wasn’t involved. I mean, that I wasn’t a willing participant.”

A pause and then a soft, genuine, “I’m sorry. For everything.”

Yeah. That. Quinn fingered the wet lip of the glass then dragged the bit of alcohol over his lips. “I just don’t know how I couldn’t have been so stupid.”

“You weren’t stupid. She was good. All the time Mimi and I spent with her; we never suspected a thing.”

“But you’re nice people, so you expect other people to be nice. I’m trained to spot trouble. And I did – initially. Right after she pulled that gun on Fuller, I knew something was up. Her story didn’t jive, and I couldn’t find any trace that she’d ever lived in New York. I knew she was lying but then she came to me with that black eye and the tale of woe about her husband and I fucking fell for it.”

“You’re a gentleman. You saw a lady in distress, and you couldn’t help yourself.”

Quinn paused to finish the cigarette.

“But if I’d been more suspicious,” Allen continued. “If Mimi hadn’t gotten so close, she wouldn’t have gotten to you and –”

“Doc. Don’t do that to yourself. Like you said. She was good at her job.” Quinn tamped out the butt of the cigarette in the overflowing ashtray.

“The way she looked at you, when she offered—”

“Doc,” Quinn cut him off loudly and purposely. “Ears.” A reminder that the phone lines weren’t secure.

“I just think maybe it wasn’t all a job for her. I think she had feelings for you.”

A sudden flash of her body beneath his. Those full red lips parting for him. So soft and small and yet so so much in bed.

He picked up the letter opener on his desk and jabbed the point into the tip of his finger to wipe away the image.

“You’re giving her too much credit. That last bit was just an act, too. To keep me from shooting her fucking head off.”

But he wasn’t as sure as he sounded. In that moment, their bodies nearly touching, his hand gently urging her to let go of the gun. . . those big eyes begging for forgiveness even as those succulent lips spoke the words.

“You should go home. Get some rest.”

Quinn laughed. “I’m not ready to face that yet. In fact, I may never go home. I’ll just hire a moving company to clear it all out and sell it. Then I can start fresh. One room, here on the base.”

“Michael.”

“Damn, you know things are bad when you call me Michael. Why don’t we make it a real humdinger of a night and I’ll call you Allen. As in, good night Allen. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

A heavy sigh on the other end of the phone. “I don’t like leaving you there all alone but Mimi – she’s devastated. Not just by Susie but what she—”

“Doc!” God, would the man never learn. “Just take care of your wife.” Quinn cradled the receiver between his chin and shoulder so he could open the Bourbon bottle. He poured the last of it into his glass. “Joel’s someplace safe for the night, right?”

“At his friend’s house. I talked to him and told him that Mimi and I were both going on a last-minute trip. She’s been leaving a lot lately, so he wasn’t suspicious. He’ll be home day after tomorrow.”

Time enough to clean the blood stains out of the carpet.

“If Mimi needs more time, I can pick him up and take him somewhere for the day. Go bowling or take him to a movie or something.”

“That’s nice of you to offer.”

“I wouldn’t mind. . . spending a day. . . “ Testing out what it’s like to be a dad. “Go take care of your wife. I’ll be fine.”

A pause. “Captain.” A drag of breath. “You’re welcome to spend the night here if you like. You could sleep in Joel’s room.”

With the cowboys and spacemen.

“I appreciate the offer but I can catch some z’s on the couch here in the office or there’s probably an empty bunk in the barracks.” Sip of Bourbon. “Or I may just go home. Have to face it sometime.”

“I’m sorry,” Allen said again. So soft and heartfelt and true.

“Like I said, we’ll get through this.”

“As long as we stick together,” Allen finished.

“As long as we stick together. Good night, Doc.” Quinn hung up the phone before Hynek could say another word. Then he pulled the plug. Should have thought of that before. Why didn’t he think of that before?

Easy. Because as much as it hurt to talk to his best friend and partner, it hurt more not to hear his voice. He understood why Allen had to stay home. Mimi had to be a wreck, maybe to the point where she might think of harming herself. She’s done something she shouldn’t have been able to come back from. Then Susie appeared and saved the day in a weird and horrible way.

Funny. If it hadn’t been for Susie’s confession, he’d be drinking his way through the Bourbon for an entirely different reason. Generals, I found your thief. Mimi Hynek and yes, I think the Doc was complicit.

Jail for both of them.

The gas chamber if it seemed like they were about to hand those files off to a Russian spy. A spy like. . . Susie.

Quinn sat up straight as a chill ran down his spine.

Susie was at the Hynek’s house. She was upset and she never did say why. Her accomplice came in looking for her. Why? To pick up the files, given to her by the Hyneks?

No.

No, it couldn’t be.

They were all in it together?

But why?

Quinn remembered hearing that Oppenheimer and some of the other scientists at Los Alamos wanted to share secrets with the Russians because they believed that we’d be safer if we all had the same knowledge. That there are no enemies in science.

That sounded like a philosophy Dr. Allen Hynek would subscribe to.

He began stealing secrets long before his wife was involved.

Quinn stared at the phone, replaying the conversation, the apologies and kind words. Allen sounded truly sorry about how it all went down. Maybe Quinn had been too hasty saying it wasn’t his fault.

“Oh god, Doc.” Quinn didn’t want to believe it but it all fit together so neatly. Susie’s friendship with Mimi. Allen stealing the object from White Forest. The secret meetings with men he claimed he didn’t know. He realizes that his partner is keeping a closer eye on him so he has to have his wife steal while Hynek has the perfect alibi.

It’s who do you trust time.

And in that moment. With his spirit broken and his heart ripped from his chest – Captain Michael Quinn realized the truth. There wasn’t a single person on the planet he could trust now. Including himself. He’d gone along with the lie to protect the people he cared about.

He’d lied to protect people who had used him. Thieves, spies and murderers.

“Oh God Doc, what have you done? What the hell have I done. .. . . "

The End


End file.
